A patent examiner who works at the European Patent Office (EPO) performs a similar job to a UK patent examiner who works at the UK Intellectual Property Office.
Last Updated: November 1, 2024
A patent examiner who works at the European Patent Office (EPO) perfoms a similar job to a UK patent examiner working at the UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO). The obvious difference is that they’re dealing with applications for patents that may enable someone to protect their ideas across Europe, whereas UK patent examiners deal with applications to protect an idea in the UK only.
The European Patent Office’s main locations are in Munich, Berlin and The Hague.
Generally speaking, you’ll need the same skills as a UK patent examiner with the additional requirement that you’ll need really excellent language skills in at least one of the three official languages of the EPO – English, French and German – and you’ll need to understand the other two well.
Specifically, to become an EPO examiner you need the following:
- Citizenship of one of the member states of the European Patent Organisation.
- A Masters degree in a scientific or engineering subject.
- An excellent knowledge of one official language (English, French and German) and the ability to understand the other two.
- A genuine interest in technology, an eye for detail and an analytical mind!
More information about the requirements can be found in the EPO’s patent examiner profile.
When you start the job, you spend the first two years in a special training programme for new examiners. After that, the training is on the job, with one-to-one supervision from an experienced examiner. The ongoing programme of training continues and you need to keep improving your skills and staying up to date.
The career path to becoming a senior patent examiner is clearly structured and involves regular legal, technical and wider skills training.
The EPO website provides further information about patent examiner training.
Helping people get their ideas protected gives quite a buzz and it involves being at the cutting edge of developments in your field. Pay tends to be good and there are obvious benefits if you’re interested in living and working abroad.
When a new patent application lands on your desk, you need to get your head around it fast, understanding it well enough to judge its innovation and reviewing the scientific literature. That would be challenge enough, but the technology and law are constantly changing, so even when you’re trained, you can’t stop learning and adapting.
As for a UK patent examiner, it can sometimes be hard delivering bad news to an applicant about whether, and with what scope, their patent can be granted – especially if they disagree with you!
Jobs vacancies are posted on the EPO website.